The White Collar Recession
Many of my highly-skilled, highly-educated friends are unemployed, and those with jobs are scared to death that their tech, marketing or advertising firms will go bust and leave them walking the streets. Several friends recently finished certified technical training classes in system administration in order to escape low-end support or blue-collar jobs. Now they're either earning less than they did before or are calling up old buddies looking for day-labor. My cousin, with 35 years' experience in journalism, spent a year and over $1500 in classes to become a technical editor. He just took a job as an organizer with the Teamsters local (and loves it!). As my blogging colleague at Critiques of Editorials points out, our current recession is not like those of '82 or '90. Apparently, the unemployement statistics indicate a relatively low quantitative jobless rate, but the anecdotal evidence suggests a historically unprecedented qualitaitve un- and under-employment situation.
10:32:43 AM 
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